Thomas Del Mar - Arms & Armour

64
154
154
A FINE GERMAN SWEPT-HILT RAPIER WITH BLUED
STEEL HILT, CIRCA 1600
with sharply tapering blade of diamond section, inset with a
copper rondel in the centre towards the ricasso, tapering
ricasso stamped with the mark of Wolfgang Stantler, the
letters ST arranged vertically beneath a crown, blued steel
hilt of flattened rounded bars, comprising down-curved
quillon with flattened globular terminal (previously pierced),
knuckle-guard with terminal en suite with the quillon, outer
ring-guard bifurcated and joining the arms of the hilt at the
base, lower ring-guard, trifuracted inner-guard, and
flattened barrel-shaped pommel, original grip of plaited
wire and ‘Turk’s heads’ and retaining much early blued
finish (oxidised to brown in places)
86cm; 33N in blade
Provenance:
The Property of a Lady, Christie, Manson & Woods, 30th
April 1973 lot 176, 880 Gns to Josey.
Literature:
Leslie Southwick, Antique Edged Weapons, Woodbridge
1982, p.38, illustrated.
This sword belongs to the well known group of rapiers
associated with the Munich Town Guard. The present
example varies in the use of an s-shaped as opposed to
curved bar joining the outer ring to the lower ring-guard.
Others are preserved in the Royal Armouries, Leeds, the
Musée Royal de l’Armée et d’ Histoire Militaire, Brussels,
and the Wallace Collection. Another example from this
group was sold Sotheby’s Olympia, 29th June 2005, lot 34
(£14,400, including premium). For a discussion of this
group see A. V. B. Norman 1980, pp.127-129.
£8000-10000